Cyprus' electricity consumers will dig deep into their pockets, due to the increased cost of fuel as a consequence of the war in the Middle East, while at the same time not even the photovoltaic systems that a few thousand households have on their roofs will be able to stem any increase to a large extent.
The reason? Because by the end of March, all the stored kilowatt hours that had been produced - and stored in the grid - by consumers' home photovoltaics in the previous period will be zeroed.
In fact, in addition to the zeroing of stocks (which has already happened in several cases), which was known on the basis of the contracts signed, many citizens will have to face another problem: Cuts in the production of their home photovoltaics.
In simpler words, what emerges after an official briefing by the Electricity Authority of Cyprus in "F" is that:
- First, by the end of March, all the stored kilowatt hours produced by photovoltaics in the previous period and not consumed will be reduced to zero and,
- Second, in March and April, thousands of owners of rooftop photovoltaics (mainly those who installed them after the introduction of the obligation for installation and ripple control, i.e. the system that allows the Operator to remotely disconnect the photovoltaic) will see cuts in the production of their systems, due to excess production and reduced demand during this period.
Why are they zeroed
According to the same information, based on what is provided for in the contracts with rooftop photovoltaic owners, following old decisions of the Ministry of Energy, the EAC is obliged to zero all kilowatt hours that had been produced and stored throughout the previous period by the residential photovoltaic systems. This deletion will be done by the end of March, for all consumers who have ripple control, regardless of whether they have not completed three years of operation of their photovoltaic system.
It is important to note that after the deletion of kilowatt hours, net metering households will continue to store the green kilowatt hours they do not consume and the process of zeroing the stock will be repeated in the future every three years. Zeroing will be done every 12 months in the case of net billing contracts.
Essentially, at the end of March, all stored kilowatt hours for both net metering and net billing will be deleted, while in the future this decision will be applied differently for these two plans. In short, the next write-off for net metering will take place in February – March 2029 (and every three years), while for net billing the next write-off will take place in October – November 2027 and every year.
Massive cuts until April
At the same time, consumers will have to face another issue, since in addition to deleting all stored kilowatt hours in the coming days, they will not be able to store excess kilowatt hours to the maximum extent until at least April, since according to the same information cuts will continue until this month For those who must have Ripple Control (mainly those who installed photovoltaics from the end of 2023 onwards) and small commercial systems that have been grouped together.
Specifically, as it was conveyed to us, until April there will be cuts, i.e. the deactivation of energy production from residential and small commercial systems, for all 20 consumer groups, which in the past saw themselves periodically affected.
The decision was taken after - also due to temperatures - the supply of electricity is greater than the demand (as at this time, neither air conditioners for cooling nor for heating are working) and so serious cuts will have to be made, for the safety and stability of the electricity system.
As he characteristically mentioned to us, the needs in these months are close to 450MW, while the production from renewable sources exceeds 1000. At the same time, for safety reasons and to ensure the stability of the system, the EAC must maintain at all times production from conventional production of about 200MW, so only about 250MW can be used from RES.
